Bringing Klickitat County back to its roots

This week’s story, titled “Centerville was Settled by Finnish,” was written by Jett Niva and first published July 1, 1954, as part of a Diamond Anniversary Edition. We will be pulling from it for the next few weeks.

Original Party Arrived There May 10, 1877

This is a short history of the first settlement by Finnish people in the Centerville region. They came from the East where they had worked in copper mines, but they wanted to go where they could farm.

There were many English-speaking families in the area before the Finns came.

The Finns heard of the homesteads of 160 acres being given to families, so they came west by train to Portland.

A man by the name of Elias Peltopera had written to them to come to Pendleton to get their homesteads. But the migrants lost the man’s address-and didn’t know where Pendleton was.

They were told to go to The Dalles. They had heard of Klickitat Countyincluding the tiding that there were Indians there. They sent a few of the men ahead to see how the Indians were behaving. Those sent were John Hager, Jacob Jacobsen, Lars Matson, and son Matt who interpreted for the group. The party found out the Indians weren’t giving any more trouble.

So, they all decided to come. Crossing the Columbia in boats, bringing along a couple of horses and wagon (the Finnish people never traveled by ox-team) they arrived at Centerville May 10, 1877.

When they topped the hill they were greeted by a wonderful sweep of green farmland.

Those who came later the same year were John Johnson, Eric Jussilla, John Kaidera, August Klockner, Henry Lahte, Matt Hyrkas, Matt Ahola and son, Matt, John Niemela, Silvert Tormanen,

Andrew Wiidanen, Mike Wilson, all with their families.

Others followed and took up homesteads; Peter Nimela in 1889, Henry Niva in 1880, Gabriel Wahnan in 1877.

Lumber was cheap then and the men had saved, so they built small houses fi rst and then built additions as they were needed. They made their own shingles and fence material, and a few log houses were erected which are still standing. Some of the men also worked on the railroad on the Oregon side near Celilo. They were husky, used to hard work.

There was nothing but tall grass and Indian trails when they fi rst pioneers came. They brought a few horses and hand plows to start breaking the soil. They farmed a few acres at fi rst and then added more. Finally, all the available ground was in wheat. The settlers bought more land and built better homes as they prospered.

In all, thirty families and a few single men got homesteads.

This valley was named Centerville because it is in the center of the Plateau ringed by the Columbia Hills and the Simcoe Mountains. From here can be seen Mt. Adams and Mt. Hood. The pioneers couldn’t have picked a better view.

Al Brown had the fi rst grocery and dry goods store here, and also the Post Office. He was succeeded by a man named Wallace. There the women of the early days sold eggs for five cents a dozen, and butter, too.

Lars Mattson, incidentally, was the fi rst of the pioneers to set foot on Washington soil as the party crossed from Oregon.

I want to say a few words about the brave pioneer mothers. They were at home with the children and did all the chores while the men worked out. Often Indians, travelling from Yakima Valley to The Dalles, would stop for water or something to eat. They wore large feathers and had painted faces. Pioneer women made their own wool yarn and made stocking for the whole family. There were no sewing machines, everything was done by hand, including the washing. I was born at Centerville May 24, 1882 of pioneer parents and have lived here all of my life.

Local homeowners do derive benefit from solar

Homeowners benefit from local solar power generation. Technically, Klickitat County only produces solar-electric and hydroelectric energy. Moreover, small landowners already have a win-win from solar, for those of us who have chosen to do so.

Wind is solar. Because wind is the result of the sun heating atmospheric air, “wind” could also be called solar thermal generated energy, which when harvested with wind turbines, is converted to electrical energy. Solar panels, also called solar photovoltaic (PV) panels, harvest energy from sunlight and then convert it to electrical energy.

Guest Editorial have the space to explain why here.

We still need to figure out how to generate excess power without blighting our county with 280 acres (or more) covered with ~424,000 (or more) solar PV panels.

Steve Heitmann

Washington state produces 7.75% of its electrical power from solar thermal generated wind. Currently, only 0.41% comes from solar photovoltaic generation, and 68.23% from hydro. Source: http://bit.ly/3y1IkKL. Each wind generator, on average, can generate 2 MegaWatts at peak output. This is equivalent to about 6,200 325W PV panels at peak output. When converting to electrical energy, solar PV panels average 21% efficiency and wind generators are 30% to 50% efficient. One wind gener-ator takes up a heck-of-a-lot less space than 6,200 PV panels, which would require around 2 to 3.5 acres (depending on seasonal optimization at 45 degrees latitude) of fixed ground-mount PV arrays. Livestock can graze and crops can be grown around wind generators. Conventional solar PV mega-farms aren’t so accommodating.

How do Klickitat County residents benefit? Lower cost of electricity. Why? The so-called “power grid” is the internet of electrical power. Power generated by solar thermal (wind) or solar photovoltaic (PV) is likely sent to BPA over power lines and sold to BPA (this is solar farm revenue income). BPA sells hydro-, wind-, and PV-generated power to KPUD, making a small profit for BPA. If there’s excess power, BPA then sells that power to other power buyers in other states, say PG&E in California or maybe ConEdison in New York. Because electrical power is on the internet-like “power grid,” it can be routed anywhere in the nation (except Texas, because Texas is not on the national power grid). Hence, the more wind and solar farms in Klickitat County, the more excess power BPA can sell to other states. The more local power BPA can sell, the more likely your KPUD rates will remain low while regional and national power demands are increasing. We win. If we don’t generate enough power for our local needs, then BPA must buy power from other states, which, in the near future, will force KPUD to raise its rates. And then, we lose.

How do small landowners already have a win-win?

Almost every small landowner with their own solar PV system has a “grid-tie” hookup to the grid. I went my own way and designed a grid-assist system, where, like any electric appliance, I straight-up pay for the grid power that’s used to charge batteries four months during the winter. When I can afford more battery storage, I’ll need little or no grid assist. In my opinion, this is a better solution than grid-tie, but I don’t

THE

Goldendale Sentinel

Official newspaper of Klickitat County, Washington

Established 1879 • Published every Wednesday

Burn-out has got to go

The Festival of Wheels gave it another try this year. It seems the attendance has dwindled to much lower levels than when the event was new, 10 years ago. There are a lot of competing car shows this time of year, so it doesn’t surprise me .

any group that wants to burn-out. There are places in the county where it could be held, just not in the city please. I hate toxic smoke, and you should too.

Events @goldendalesentinel.com

(Events and activities)

Editorial:

Lou Marzeles, Editor & Publisher

Business and office staff:

Owned by Tartan Publications, Inc.

Leslie Geatches, President, Ad Design

This year Goldendale Motorsports Association and ABATE brought back the burn-out, which was tried several times in the past with questionable benefits to the town. This year someone had the brilliant idea to use the old skateboard park as a place to stage the return of the burnout. It was held on the concrete slab, a tempting medium for anyone inclined to bum rubber. Rednecks of many degrees, punk kids or maybe the little old lady from Pasadena.

On Sept 4 I will be asking the mayor and his administration to make an ordinance forbidding anyone from reckless unsafe burnouts in any ones neighborhood or any street in the Goldendale city limits. I would appreciate some support from like-minded citizens at the council meeting. Let them know how you feel.

So-called Death with Dignity

“One in four people do not live long enough to survive the 15-day waiting period,” according to Cassandra Sutherland. Let’s see, that means they die before they are able to commit suicide, doesn’t it? How ironic is that?

I personally was left with a bad taste in my mouth and lungs. Even though I made it a point to stay away from the burn-out and was at my home where I thought I would escape the noise and smoke, when the toxic cloud rose from the park and drifted over the Little Klickitat River Park (the swimming pool) on to the kids and families at the pool and on to me while I was sitting on my property. We were contaminated by the toxins in the smoke, and my eyes and throat were imitated, and my lungs filled with carbon monoxide and other cancer causing toxic compounds for three hours.

My experience with hospice care is that procedures are now available for each person to have “death with dignity” without entering into this process at all. I have seen pain managed, family apprehensions eased, and the natural death of patients who had terminal illnesses, without the need to leave family and friends grieving over the knowledge that their loved one took their own life.

Ken McKune Goldendale C

The upgrades would help

I recently received an updated “Terms for Business and Deposit Account Agreement” from Columbia Bank. I am not in the habit of reading the fine print but for some reason this time I did. I came across an “added” line that I found very concerning. Again, this line is both for personal and business accounts. It reads: “We may refuse to open and account and may close your account at any time for any reason or for no reason at all.” tacted by some-one higher up. That person has not contacted me after more than a week so I am following through on what I told the bank contacts I was going to do—write a letter to the editor to be sure local folks are aware of how Columbia Bank is choosing to deal with its account holders. My concern is that a comment as broad as this opens the door for abuse. I have had no difficulties with our local branch and am sorry that the headquarters has decided to take such a hard line. It ap-pears I will need to look for a bank that does not behave in this manner.